Background, Writing and Recording
During 2003, when Charlie Simpson was still an active member of successful pop trio Busted, he met fellow songwriter-guitarist Alex Westaway and drummer Omar Abidi at a party. He was by this stage becoming increasingly frustrated by the music he was performing in Busted and stated he had "all of this creativity pent up inside and I just needed to vent it somewhere, and I was writing a lot of songs but I couldn’t play them, because I didn’t have anyone to play them with".
Westaway subsequently moved into Simpson's spare room after dropping out of university and the pair began writing together. Over the next six months, the EP had been written. Alex later invited school friend, bassist Dan Haigh, to practise with the band and the foursome soon began booking regular rehearsal sessions together. Later, after Simpson had decided to focus on Fightstar full time, the band entered Criterion Studios in London with producer Mark Williams to begin tracking. Recording sessions were often interrupted as during this period Simpson was in the middle of a sold-out stint of Wembley shows with Busted. Commenting on recording period, Simpson later stated:
| “ | This EP was all I cared about. It consumed my mind. It was the first time I'd recorded anything that I loved. I was 18 and we were just kids having fun. It was the most innocent record because we weren't thinking about how it might be received at all. We just wanted to record some songs. There were no limitations: we were just doing it for ourselves. It was such a fun time. I'll always remember those days. We didn't have a care in the world. | ” |
The song "Mono", named in honor of the Japanese band of the same name, was recorded during a thunderstorm. Shortly before the track's heavy finale, it's possible to hear the sound of Simpson screaming in the rain after he ran outside, unaware the studio's room mics were capturing his antics. The video for promotional video "Palahniuk's Laughter" was directed by bassist Dan Haigh and was released to music stations shortly after Simpson's official departure from Busted.
Read more about this topic: They Liked You Better When You Were Dead
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